Currently Reading

Suzanne is currently reading:

• Kitchen Chinese by Ann Mah
• The Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantrease

Craig is currently reading:

• A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta

Kitchen Chinese by Ann Mah

“My first meal in Beijing is roasted duck, or kaoya as it’s called in Chinese.  Glossy and brown, with crisp skin and meltingly moist flesh, the bird is cut into over one hundred pieces, in the traditional way.”

Ann Mah’s novel is definitely a winner.  The first words left me salivating and, as I delved into Isabel Lee’s new life in Beijing, I found myself laughing and captivated.  The story begins with a twenty-something wannabe journalist, who gets herself fired from a New York fashion magazine.  With a sister already in Beijing, and enough of the Chinese language to get by, this American born Chinese girl gets talked into taking the great leap of faith and moving overseas.  Mah gives us a wonderful look into the life of a girl who struggles to navigate a very different culture than the one she was raised in, while at the same time establishing herself as a journalist and flirting with a romance or two.

This was such an enjoyable read.  I savored every minute of it!

4 stars (out of 5)
Published in 2010
339 Pages

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

“Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960.  A church baby we like to call it.  Taking care a white babies, that’s what I do, along with all the cooking and cleaning.  I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime.  I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop crying, and go to the toilet bowl before they mamas even get out a bed in the morning.”

The Help is set in Mississippi in the early 1960′s.  It’s the days of no air conditioning, steamy southern weather, plantation houses, ladies leagues and colored help.  And it’s also a time of civil rights marches and cross burnings and lynchings for those who dare to speak against the world of Jim Crow.

The main characters are Skeeter, a single white woman in her early twenties, who longs to be a journalist; and Aibelene and Minny – housemaids who agree to help Skeeter write a book about the lives of the colored help.  These women have a lot to say about working for white families, and they risk their lives telling it.  The book is full of warmth and humor and sadness and frustration.  It’s everything you could want in a good book, which is probably why it has skyrocketed to the top of the bestseller list, was made into a Hollywood film, and schools are already talking about how they can add it to their curriculum.

I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since it first came out, but was forced to be patient, since it was on our book club list.  It was certainly worth the wait.  In fact, I couldn’t put this book down.  I read it in just under three days.  I applaud Ms. Stockett’s bravery in writing the voice of a southern black servant.  I’m sure many authors wouldn’t have dared to do this.  But Stockett, drawing from personal memory of her own beloved housekeeper, had an important story to tell.  It’s one of our own American history, and I loved the fact that this book wasn’t entirely a downer.  It was also funny and charming and it showed the reality of life on both sides of the color barrier.

4 1/2 stars (out of 5)
Published in 2009
451 pages

Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin

When he was 11 years old, Li Cunxin was selected from his peasant community and sent to Beijing to study dance at the Beijing Dance Academy.  Mao’s Last Dancer is Li’s moving memoir of his rise from near starvation to being one of the top ballet dancers in the world.

Wow!  What can I say about this wonderful book.  I loved it from start to finish.  Li Cunxin’s life is like a fairy tale.  He was born into Communist China, taken away from his family at a young age, and given a gift that would change his life forever – dance.  Li understood the only way he could help his family was by working hard at the Academy. He  strove to be the best.  Then one day he received an important opportunity.  He was allowed to take part in a summer dance program in the United States.  The memoir shows the world unveiling itself to Li as he realizes the grand deception Mao’s government has forced upon its people.  He loves the freedom (and wealth!) of the West, and once tasting it, never wants to go back.  Li’s defection to the United States in 1981 made world headlines.

This is a memoir that has all the elements I could ever want.  It is gripping, inspirational and genuinely moving.  I cheered for Li and I cried for him.  This is a book I will definitely recommend to others.

4 stars (out of 5)
Published in 2003, 2009 (I read the updated version)
499 pages

Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan

Say You’re One of Them is a collection of short stories intended to tell the plight of children in Africa.  It is a heart-wrenching depiction of modern day life, but it is also intended to show their spirit, their hope and their resilience.

With the opening paragraph, the reader is transported to Kenya, where a young girl chooses a life of prostitution in order to help her younger siblings.  The parents are still part of the family, but drugs and alcohol have taken over their lives, usurping the place that their children should have held.

The second story Fattening for Gabon tells of an uncle who would sell his wards into slavery.  Akpan’s verbal finesse takes a dark subject and makes it bearable to read.  I truly appreciated the choice of inferences, rather than a direct ugly approach.

As I read these stories, I couldn’t help but question, “don’t Africans love their children?”  Of course they must, but as in our country, there are children who suffer from neglect and abuse.  The difference between the United States and Africa is, however, vast.  African parents agonize about keeping their children from violence, wonder how they are going to feed them, and strive to given their children hope for the future.

The author says that the world looks away from what is happening in Africa.  That may be true, but the solutions are not easy.  Violence and disease have ripped apart families, and family is where values are taught.  Young adult males have grown up without fathers, they are subjected to violence, and have been taught that might makes right.  The NGOs that help in African countries understand education is the key.  Young Africans must be taught these values in the classrooms, but it will not happen overnight.

In the meantime, the Western world can educate itself about Africa.  That’s why books such as this one are important.

4 stars (out of 5)
Published in 2008
360 pages

American Sniper by Chris Kyle

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History; co-written by Scott McEwen, Jim DeFelice

I found the stories interesting, but the book doesn’t seem to have a point. At least not one that I would subscribe to. Chris Kyle is a good-old-boy from Texas and comes across as such. The writing should have been much better. I won’t fault Chris for that, but what about his two co-writers. What I did enjoy were his wife’s counterpoints. Chris was smart letting his wife pop his balloon and bring him down to earth every couple chapters.
Chris ordered his life: God, Country, and Family. His wife wanted him home to raise his kids: God, Family, and Country. I was waiting for God to make an appearance. Chris called the enemy ‘Savages’, which from his view-point they were. The Insurgences have their own view-point; it’s probably identical. That said once this country goes to war, there are few rules, and I would rather have Chris laying protective cover for me than not.

C
400 pages

Jefferson by R.B. Bernstein

After reading 1776, George Washington and John Adams, I was ready to expand upon my knowledge of our third President and writer of the Declaration of Independence.  Thomas Jefferson is an immortal hero for Americans, and often that status comes with a lofty purity that is difficult to actually live up to.  In R. B. Bernstein’s abbreviated biography, I felt I got to know the real person that Jefferson was, rather than the icon.

Jefferson was clearly a passionate man.  He had a love for learning and enjoyed erudite discussions with knowledgeable men of his time.  He even extended those discussion’s to Abigail Adams, but it is fairly clear that, like most men of his era, he felt that women were of an inferior mind to men.  His passions, however got him into trouble.  He would stand firm on an issue (for instance his belief in a very limited Federal Government), write scathing critiques of anyone who disagreed with him, and later, when he had to bend his own beliefs (for example, when he approved the Louisiana Purchase although many in Congress felt this power was not granted to the Federal Government)  his public would never let him live it down.  He clearly was not the pragmatic man that Washington or even Adams was.

Jefferson wrote much about his dislike of slavery and felt that it should be abolished.  Yet he owned hundreds of slaves and never set a single one free.  I believe it was likely a weakness of character.  Jefferson wanted to create an image of being one of the planter elite, and so he continually burdened himself with large debts.  The assets with which he could guarantee payment of those debts, included his slaves, and he likely felt that freeing them would make him appear untrustworthy (as opposed to the honorable gentleman he wished to be perceived as) to his creditors.

Regardless of his personal shortcomings, his gifts to Americans (and mankind) are immeasurable.  The concept of a republic, free from aristocratic rule, and freedom for all men is one that has spread like wildfire across the globe.  Jefferson didn’t come up with the idea, but he helped to promote it.  His words in our Declaration of Independence have been used to establish new democracies in other countries.  Thomas Jefferson was a Governor of Virginia, the first U.S. Secretary of State,and  our 3rd U.S. President.  He founded the University of Virginia, established lucrative trade treaties and more than doubled the size of the United States.

While this is by no means a definitive biography, it’s a good start.  There was a six volume biography written by a historian in the 1980′s, but given the fact that there are over 40,000 letters written by or received by Jefferson, it’s a monumental task for any biographer.

3 1/2 stars (out of 5)
Published in 2003
253 pages